The official dirt road was permeated with the grassy, fishy smell of ox dung. Woodcutters carrying dry firewood into the city came in an endless stream, and ox carts selling charcoal flowed past continuously.
Wang Daosheng said to Chen Ji and the others: "Everyone get on the cart. Chen Ji, just now when distributing congee, you did the work of others as well. That can be considered undergoing your punishment in a disguised form. You don't need to walk on foot from here on out."
Chen Ji didn't ask much; merely expressing his thanks, he found an empty spot on the flatbed cart and sat down.
Zhang Xia mounted her horse and rode Zaozao next to the ox cart. She asked curiously: "Mister, my dad often says you are rebellious and unorthodox. Why is that?"
Sitting on the cart, Wang Daosheng asked casually: "The 'Analects of Confucius' states 'the gentleman is not an implement'. What is the interpretation of this?"
Chen Wenzong pondered for a moment: "Master Zhu's annotation says: An implement is suited for its specific use and cannot be interchanged. A scholar of accomplished virtue possesses an embodiment devoid of nothing, and therefore their uses encompass everything, not being specialized for merely one talent or one skill. What Master Zhu means is that the Greatest Sage and Former Teacher meant those in governance need not be specialized in any single skill, but must absolutely be generalists."
Wang Daosheng said indifferently: "But I feel Master Zhu's interpretation is incorrect. The Greatest Sage and Former Teacher once evaluated Guan Zhong's 'implement as small', which referred to him having small tolerance and a small heart. Therefore, I believe that when the Greatest Sage and Former Teacher said 'the gentleman is not an implement', he meant that a gentleman should harbor the whole world in his heart and be as all-encompassing as the sea receiving a hundred rivers."
Chen Wenzong opened his mouth, pondering how to refute this.
Riding on her horse, Zhang Xia said: "Both seem to make a bit of sense, hey! But I like Mister's explanation more. I feel a gentleman doesn't necessarily need to know astronomy above and geography below, but he must absolutely have tolerance!"
Wang Daosheng said with a smile: "The so-called 'rebellious and unorthodox' is merely my understanding of the ancient sages being different from theirs. What I want to teach you is not for you to completely accept my thoughts, but to let you look at this world yourselves and form your own thoughts."
Sitting at the front of the ox cart, Prince Jing laughed heartily and clearly without turning his head: "This is precisely the meaning of walking ten thousand miles of roads. The civil officials of our Ning Dynasty nowadays like discussing principles behind closed doors. They discuss it back and forth, but it's really just trying to find evidence to support themselves from the words of ancient sages."
Chen Wenzong said sternly: "Your Highness, speak cautiously."
Prince Jing gave a hearty laugh: "You actually resemble your father completely!"
At this moment, Zhang Xia suddenly switched topics: "Chen Ji, what do you think is the interpretation of the gentleman is not an implement... Chen Ji?!"
She waited and waited but got no answer from Chen Ji. Turning her head, she saw Chen Ji sitting in the ox cart with his head lowered; who knew when he had fallen asleep.
Zhang Xia raised her eyebrows: "Chen Ji, Mister is currently lecturing, how can you be sleeping!"
Bai Li hurriedly stopped her: "What are you yelling for? He definitely stayed up all night yesterday and is exhausted because of it. Let him sleep a little longer!"
Zhang Xia curled her lip, soundlessly mocking by mouthing the words: "Let~ him~ sleep~ a~ little~ longer~"
Bai Li rolled her eyes: "I won't lower myself to your level!"
Beside them, Chen Wenzong cupped his hands and bowed to Wang Daosheng: "Mister, forgive him. My Third Brother is still young, and having never attended an academy these past few years, he doesn't understand the rules. I will wake him up right now."
However, Wang Daosheng raised a hand to stop him: "No matter, just let him sleep a while longer. I originally had no intention to lecture either; I only casually spoke a few sentences because Zhang Xia brought it up."
The Prince Heir's face contorted: "Mister, you definitely do not treat me like this!"
Prince Jing laughed merrily: "That is a request I specifically raised to Mister Wang. I can't control others, but you must absolutely be strictly disciplined, to save certain people from feeling they can do as they please and act without constraint after being capped!"
Bai Li: "Exactly, exactly!"
The Prince Heir: "..."
Chen Wenzong stared blankly at the trio of Prince Jing, Bai Li, and the Prince Heir on the cart. So, when a father was in front of his sons and daughters, he didn't strictly need to always keep a stern face, and sons and daughters didn't strictly need to always act perfectly respectful and compliant either.
He looked at Chen Ji silently and thought to himself, perhaps it is precisely because of this that Chen Ji resolved not to return to the Chen Estate, right?
...
...
Within the dreamscape.
The black sea of clouds was calm and unrippled.
Chen Ji drifted and fell from the long-absent black sea of clouds, dragging trails of black cloud qi as he landed on the mountain peak.
Outside the Green Mountain, the white sea of clouds was dense and thick.
Like a massive blanket wrapped around the mountainside, it surged and cascaded.
Wearing a black king's robe, Xuanyuan sat cross-legged atop a giant boulder. He silently watched the sea of clouds; looking as if it were a sea of clouds, yet seemingly not a sea of clouds. Who knew what he was thinking about.
Chen Ji coughed once to remind the other party. Only then did Xuanyuan slowly stand up. Leaning on his king's standard, he turned and looked down at Chen Ji: "You have grown lax."
Chen Ji shook his head: "I haven't."
Xuanyuan let out a mocking sneer: "Nowadays, you come here less and less frequently. Do you no longer wish to take 'Whale' away?"
As he spoke, that long-handled blade manifested in the void and floated before Chen Ji.
The long blade body resembled a narrow crescent moon, profoundly cold yet overbearingly domineering.
Chen Ji grasped the slade's hilt with his right hand and held it horizontally before him, gently stroking the blade's body with his left hand: "Of course I want to take it away. It's just that lately matters have come upon me one after another, leaving me with fewer chances to even sleep. But going forward, I should have a bit more time."
Xuanyuan waved at the distance: "Feng Huai, hack him!"
"Hold on," Chen Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I came today because I have many things I want to ask you."
Xuanyuan raised his chin slightly: "What do you want to ask?"
Chen Ji asked curiously: "Recently, I acquired a cultivation pathway. So long as I repeatedly read and recite articles again and again, it can birth a wisp of purple sword qi within my meridians. But every time the purple sword qi hasn't even condensed yet, it gets severed and dispelled by the sword seed. Why is this?"
Sitting cross-legged on the giant boulder, Xuanyuan said with an arrogant and haughty expression: "Since you have learned my sword seed, why do you still cultivate other Ways of the Sword? Such a superfluous and unnecessary action."
Chen Ji hurriedly explained: "Didn't I obtain a cultivation pathway out of nowhere? Being idle is just being idle anyway."
Xuanyuan asked: "Since you learned someone else's Way of the Sword, what are you coming to ask me for?"
Chen Ji thought for a moment and said: "You should be the most formidable person in the Way of the Sword in the world. When having questions regarding the Way of the Sword, of course I have to come ask you."
Xuanyuan was speechless for a long while: "How could you say such words so easily and naturally nowadays?"
Chen Ji said sincerely: "Telling the honest truth."
Xuanyuan remained silent for several seconds: "What was it you asked just now?"
Chen Ji said: "Why is other sword qi severed and dispelled by the sword seed?"
Xuanyuan scoffed coldly: "The sword is the sovereign of a hundred weapons. Have you ever seen a nation with two sovereigns? When two sovereigns meet, naturally the winner becomes king and the loser becomes a bandit; the strong remain, and the weak dissipate. Didn't you ask before, how formless sword seeds are easily broken, and how to make a sword seed manifest a form?"
"Yes." It was precisely because Chen Ji had asked this question previously that he had suffered vicious beatings from the giant halberdier and Feng Huai, yet up until now, Xuanyuan hadn't answered this question either.
Xuanyuan said calmly: "Seize swords."
"Seize swords?"
Xuanyuan said: "For the Sword Seed Pathway, stepping over other Ways of the Sword to ascend the throne is an innate requirement. If you want the sword seed to manifest a form, you must seize the opponent's sword time and time again to nourish your own sword."
"How do I do that?"
"You'll know once you seize one."
Upon hearing these words, Chen Ji instantly extinguished his thoughts of cultivating Cloud Obscuring. The sword seed and Cloud Obscuring absolutely could not coexist.
However, Cloud Obscuring was, at the very least, a cultivation pathway originating from the Forty-Nine Heavens; to let it go to waste in his hands like this was also somewhat of a pity.
At this moment, Xuanyuan gave him a sidelong glance: "The path of cultivation emphasizes single-minded concentration and bravely advancing with ferocity. Only the weak need to learn those garish and fancy things. Feng Huai, hack him, give him a long memory."
"Hold on, hold on," caught between laughter and tears, Chen Ji raised a hand to feng Huai to stop the other party's steps: "Don't be in such a rush for fighting and killing. I still have many doubts and confusions... right, have you truly never heard of the Forty-Nine Heavens before?"
Xuanyuan's expression was incredibly detached: "Could I be deceiving you?"
Chen Ji was puzzled: "But I have already confirmed the existence of the Forty-Nine Heavens. They say many gods live there, and there are even those who can reincarnate and descend to the mortal realm... How could you not know?"
Xuanyuan's interest was piqued: "Many gods live there? Who exactly?"
Chen Ji recalled the gods he had heard from the Prince Heir: "The Twenty-Eight Mansions, Emperor Wenchang, the Five Dipper Star Lords, the Six Star Lords of the Southern Dipper, the Lantern-Lighting Buddha..."
Xuanyuan hesitated: "Who are all of them?"
Chen Ji also hesitated: "Have you genuinely never heard of a single one of them?"
Xuanyuan furrowed his brows: "No."
Chen Ji asked again: "Then have you ever heard of Taiji Mountain, Wuji Mountain, Jade Capital Mountain, Mount Sumeru, or Kusinagara City?"
Xuanyuan shook his head: "Never heard of them."
"What places existed in the world you used to live in?"
"Qingqiu, Guixu, Qiwu Mountain, Wangqiu Mountain, Yuyuan, Lutai, Kunlun Mountain..."
This thoroughly confused Chen Ji. What kind of existence exactly were the Forty-Nine Heavens, for even a stalwart figure like Xuanyuan to have never heard of them?
It was known that Xuanyuan was an ancient primeval figure from sixteen thousand years ago. Even if his cultivation realm wasn't higher than the gods of the Forty-Nine Heavens, it absolutely wouldn't be lower than those gods either.
If even a figure like this had never heard of it, did a place like this truly exist?
Casting his gaze far and wide, Chen Ji gazed out at this Green Mountain Dreamscape...
Wait.
Could it be that the Forty-Nine Heavens only appeared
after
Xuanyuan was sealed in this world? Which was why Xuanyuan had never heard of them.
At a certain moment, Chen Ji even felt that the birth of the Forty-Nine Heavens itself was related to Xuanyuan being sealed.
He lifted his head and looked at Xuanyuan: "Why were you trapped here back then?"
Looking down at him, Xuanyuan's gaze was profound: "Feng Huai, hack him."
This time, Feng Huai no longer hesitated. Brandishing his blade, he cleaved downward.
"If you don't wanna tell me, then you don't wanna tell me, why are you hacking me?!" Chen Ji raised the Whale Blade to block. Instantly, sparks flew in all directions, bursting out like fireworks at midnight, radiantly brilliant.
Feng Huai's slashes were extremely heavy. However, even after unleashing hundreds of wide and sweeping attacks, he was unable to find any flaws in Chen Ji. In order to die fewer times, Chen Ji had genuinely pushed his defensive form to the absolute limit.
Seeing this, Xuanyuan sneered mockingly: "Only know how to defend? Knowing only how to defend won't let you take back your own blade."
Chen Ji didn't answer.
He then heard Xuanyuan's loud voice call out: "Feng Lie, you come and hack him too."
Chen Ji was shocked inwardly. Turning around, he saw a burly warrior wielding a giant axe step out from the military formation at the foot of the mountain, replying in a muffled voice: "Orders obeyed."
Having spoken, Feng Lie strode toward Green Mountain wielding the giant axe. As he sprinted wildly, the earth pounded like a beating drum.
Chen Ji said anxiously: "Two against one is unfair. I suspect you're taking the opportunity to extract personal vengeance!"
Xuanyuan scoffed coldly: "This time, you are allowed to run."
Chen Ji turned and ran toward the rugged mountain path to avoid being pincered and killed at the mountain peak by Feng Huai and Feng Lie.
However, right before descending the mountain, he abruptly swiveled around. The blade turned with his body, forcing Feng Huai to retreat.
Seizing this gap, he gazed at Xuanyuan from afar and asked loudly: "If all the furnace fires on my body are fully ignited until they burn white, what will happen?"
Xuanyuan's fingers abruptly tightened their grip on the king's standard, yet he gave no answer.
Seeing Feng Lie getting closer and closer, while Feng Huai also swung his blade once more, Chen Ji asked in panic: "What exactly will happen?!"
Xuanyuan said with profound meaning: "Immortal and indestructible."
Having gotten his answer, Chen Ji knocked Feng Huai's long-handled broadsword aside once more, turned around, and fled for his life down the rugged mountain path.